Wednesday, September 12, 2012

CAUSE Leadership wants to thank all in attendance at yesterday evening's School Board Meeting. To say the least, staff-member feedback and testimonies were both compelling & consistent...

The district's efforts to further erode and cap healthcare are unacceptable. Such actions would leave CUSD employees vulnerable;to the point of destabilizing teaching and learning across the district.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that district leadership heard our message.
While the district explained that staff and stakeholders are
misinformed, Superintendent Cordeiro prompted Ms. Abbott to press-on and
deliver their "doomesday-budget" assumptions with minimal commentary
from the Board or the gallery.

While summarizing his understanding of the
issue, Board President Andy Sheaffer characterized our outreach as a
"Kumbaya" moment. His comments were not just insulting, they were
telling. Did he listen to the personal accounts of staff and
stakeholders?

As Board Members nodded their heads, Terry Hickey-Banks's explained that the School Board now wishes they take back their "unlucky" reference and change the verbiage of
their August 24th bargaining proposal (see attached). However,
neither she nor a single Board Member provided any indication that
they'd like to change the district's actual bargaining position that,
which clarifies their assault on employee healthcare.

Semantics aside, Ms. Banks, the district's August 24th proposal said
what the district meant; and continues to mean what the district says.
Softening your language does not soften district leadership's
intentions.